Urban sprawl creates dying breed: My Word

By Stephen A. Micciche

Mar 02, 2015 | 12:00 AM

The last Mohicans. That's what citizens feel like when faced with the destruction of rural lands that continue to be gobbled up and replaced with urban sprawl. I am speaking primarily about the east side of the county, but the analogy is true for all of Orange County.

The land east of the Econ represents over 97,000 acres of undeveloped land. Land that former county commissioners had, for the most part, designated as rural lands — zoned one unit per 10 acres. The urban service line, according to the county's own Comprehensive Land Use Plan, is supposed to be west of the Econ. So why is the east community under siege, in a battle to preserve a chosen way of life — rural instead of subdivisions?

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The answer is simply money. Forget the fact that there is no infrastructure to support the addition of thousands of homes, apartments and strip malls. Forget the fact that traffic is so congested now that it adds time to get from points A to B, adds to the stress and frustrations of commuters, and adds to the cost of wasted fuel. Forget the fact that there are no primary roads running east to west other than State Road 50.

The people who are represented by Save Orange County Inc. are not opposed to reasonable development that follows the current zoning requirements. But unfortunately developers need density far greater than one unit per 10 acres to turn a big profit for themselves and their investors.

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We are not opposed to large land owners selling their land to the highest bidders or for developers to make a profit. However, when those opportunities affect a way of life; when those opportunities break the covenant that the County Commission has with the people who bought and built on the east side with the understanding that the land would remain rural; when those opportunities are not supported by the infrastructure of existing roads, public safety, sewers and water, and ecology; and when those opportunities have such adverse effects on the surrounding communities, then I say that the decisions by county commissioners should fall on the side of the people in the community.

Large-scale developments should be rejected. Should the county commissioners fail to listen to the residents who live here, then it is reasonable to assume that a chosen way of life will be gone forever. We truly will become the last of the Mohicans.

Stephen A. Micciche of Orlando is chairperson of Save Orange County Inc.